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It might surprise you, but one of the hottest trends in gardening is happening at the coldest time of the year. It's called winterscaping and it's all about jazzing up yards when they are at their bleakest. It's an especially warming concept in our part of the world, where gardens spend so long cloaked in blankets of white. What better way to take winter head on?

I know snow may be a pain to shovel, but it's unsurpassed for making rich-green foliar colours and bright red berries stand out in contrast. Truthfully, some of the most stunning gardens I've seen are winterscapes. Any outdoor plant arrangement classifies as a winterscape, although the most common are wreaths, planters and hanging baskets.

Here's what I like about them.

Evergreen wreaths are classic. I prefer them made from a combination of spruce, cedar and pine boughs with ornamental red berries for holiday flair. You may want to toss in a red cardinal bird (fake, of course) and some ribbon as well. But an unembellished wreath with just one type of evergreen looks outstanding, too. Not to be forgotten in this category are natural holly wreaths, which never diminish in popularity.

Then all you have to decide is if you want a small or large, circular, square or arcshaped one.

For greatest impact, it's hard to beat a winter planter. I have two oversized concrete pots in the front of my house that I fill with bedding plants in the spring, garden mums in fall and then, in December, convert into winterscapes. At each time of year, I use a pot-in-pot technique to keep things simple. Getting a preplanted plastic container into the larger pot takes a bit of muscle, but within minutes I can change my bare pots into spectacular works of art.

Cedar boughs, large pine cones and red berries are frequently used in outdoor arrangements. But there are lots of other variations. Birch and red-twig dogwood branches can be added for height and colour, and ribbon for festive accent. We use a lot of small live cedars and spruce trees as the focal point in many of the large containers we create. The evergreen trees often don't survive the winter, but they can be chipped and used as mulch, in the same way cut Christmas trees are recycled.

Last but not least are winter hanging baskets, which I absolutely love. It's funny, but until fairly recently most people hadn't even thought of this type of winterscape. Like their beautiful summertime cousins, they make a terrific addition to yards. The conical shaped ones we have with curved black rods look stunning. Of course, if you buy one of these decorative baskets full of greens, you can repurpose it in spring by filling it with soil and plants. Or take your cue from me and simply buy a basket full of bedding plants, remove the plastic hangers and drop the pot into the more decorative winter hanging basket.

Now, if you're not totally blown away by the pure beauty of a winterscape, there are some other convincing reasons to love this type of gardening. You don't have to deal with bugs or diseases, there's hardly any maintenance and performance is guaranteed. For many people, regardless of the season, that is gardening at its finest.

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